Friday, July 30, 2010

Ukay - Ukay

Ukay-Ukay is a Visayan term for "sift through" or "dig up" (Dr. Jaime S. Ong). It refers to the garments shipped to the Philippines as donations from some charitable group to help refugees and calamity victims. Soon enough, overseas workers learned to collect used clothing, preferably with designer labels, before it got to the Goodwill stores and send it to the Philippines in balikbayan boxes. Entrepreneurial friends and relatives would buy in bulk then sell by the piece to the public.

Ukay-ukay has been here for so long but it is only now that I really got hook into it, well me and my bestfriend actually (hehe). I remember my college classmates before, they would go to this flea market preferably early in the morning to dig up the best buy ever and looking all fashionable during our dress down days.

Just imagine a top for P50.00 ($1). You can simply mix and match it with what you have already and there, you got a new outfit without hurting your pocket. I have an unglamorous job (as others call it) that pays really well. But even if I have a considerably good paycheck every month, I still feel guilty buying branded clothes although I do splurge once in a while in them.

For a practical woman like me, ukay-ukay is such a feel-good-guilt-free way to shop clothes. This is the new stress reliever activity for me and my best friend. As what my best friend and I always say, it's not the label that we are after but the comfort of the clothes that matters. After all, if you know how to carry yourself, branded or not, you will still look good. =)

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